TheGameCollector

Checkpoint is a save file backup/restore program for modded 3DS. You generally need to use that in order to use other people's saves or to make copies of your own saves. For example if you take somebody's Pokemon save and load it up with Checkpoint, you can move copies of all of their Pokemon into your Pokemon Bank (official app) or PKSM (homebrew app). Then you can reload their save and do it again as many times as you want, or reload your own save so you can put those Pokemon into your file from Bank or PKSM. It's a hassle free way of getting any event Pokemon you may have missed on 3DS. Or let's say you regret moving some Pokemon into Pokemon Home because you can't get them back on 3DS. Well, at least you can copy someone else's.

Are you writing the save file using the homebrew program Checkpoint?

PS2 seals are not impenetrable. Meaning if you have a small enough pinky finger you can stick it in between the seams without tearing them, open the case just enough while sealed, press the button and make the disc fall out by turning the case sideways. I snuck into my grandpa's closet and stole my own Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 disc which was my Christmas present early. I claimed to have borrowed the copy I was playing. I'm not sure if I put the disc back in though. I remember when I unwrapped the case I just brought it into my bedroom and came back out.

This week I played: Donkey Kong Land 2 for Game Boy - cleared the first 2 areas with all bonus and DK coins so far Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64 - cleared all previously available levels on 00 Agent mode and cleared the Egyptian level on all 3 modes. I used a lot of save states though. Pokemon Blue Version for Game Boy - cleared Rock Tunnel, Celadon Gym, Game Corner Basement, Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower, the north half of the docks below Lavender Town and caught that Snorlax. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for Playstation 2 - cleared Dragon World once and got the Breakthrough capsule for Raditz. That's 14 of 29 Breakthrough capsules so far.

This week I added some Nintendo 64 into the mix Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for PS2 - completed Dragon World mode once and got the Gokule fusion capsule for Goku. Goldeneye 007 for N64 - completed the game on Agent mode then again on Secret Agent mode including the Aztec level on both modes. Still need to do 00 Agent mode and try to unlock the Egyptian level. Mario Kart 64 for N64 - completed all four cups with Gold on 100cc mode as Mario. Still need to do 150cc to unlock mirror mode. Pokemon Blue for Game Boy - continued my PC emulator file (Bulbasaur playthrough) and beat the 3rd gym Super Mario 64 for N64 - played from start to finish, getting all 120 stars

Does anyone care that the completion totals and list of people who completed games hasn't been updated for a while?

This week I played: Battletoads/Double Dragon for Genesis - completed as Billy (with savestates) Donkey Kong Land for Game Boy- completed 100% Mario Kart 64 for Nintendo 64 - completed all four 50cc races with gold trophies as Mario Mole Mania for Game Boy- completed 100% Tiny Toon Adventures for NES - completed with save states Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for Playstation 2 - completed Dragon World mode once and got Goku's Breakthrough capsule

This week I beat Donkey Kong for Game Boy and played more Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 for PS2: This week's progress seals the deal that I will eventually unlock all the capsules. I played Training Mode then got the last of the random capsules in Dragon World so all that is left are the rest of the Breakthrough and Fusion capsules. I played through Dragon World 4 times and got Great Saiyaman, Yamcha, and Dr. Gero's Breakthroughs + the Tiencha Fusion capsule. The hardest random capsules for me to find were Senzu Bean and 1/3 Senzu Bean. Those can be found in the space Kid Buu occupies in the last level. The 1/3 Senzu Bean is there randomly among other possibilities the first turn that you search. The Senzu Bean seems to always be there if you search the spot twice.

I think I had a similar glitch happen to me in Soul Reaver 2 once. I think I passed through a window by glitching through the barrier before I had the actual ability to phase through as a mist and I couldn't get back out. I think it autosaved there so I had to start over.

VGBP did have those really tight Game Gear box protectors for a while. They didn't work well with Majesco reprint boxes. I ended up just sticking those in Genesis box protectors. Some protection even if a little loose is better than none.

This week's summary: With the PS4 controller via emulation (like most games I have been playing lately) I played: Super Mario Land 2 for Game Boy - completed Easy mode with all 31 exits Next I found a used PS5 controller for only $45 at the pawn shop and switched to it for my PC gaming and emulation setup. I find it more comfortable and feel like I am getting less input errors. It also seems to probably have a longer battery life. With this I played: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for Game Boy - completed with all items and hearts Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for PS2 - played through Dragon World once and got Nappa's Breakthrough capsule and two more rare support capsules. It still says I have 91%. Comparing to a capsule list on Gamefaqs, it looks like I am only missing 5 rare support capsules: 1/3 Senzu Bean Senzu Bean Gero's Energy R&D Chi-chi's Wish Loyalty to Frieza and I need to play training mode which I haven't bothered with to get the capsules for those modes. After that it's just all the Breakthroughs and Fusions.

If Eiyuden Chronicle isn't delayed, that's probably going to be my #1 choice. I was a huge fan of the Suikoden games.

Evernote seems pretty useful as it has checkboxes you can insert and check on or off. I started using it for music collecting recently to find out which albums I don't even have digitally yet by artists I like at least 1 song by. I try to re-check every artist every so often to see if they have anything new since I last looked. For games I still want to buy I just make short checklists of what I don't have but want rather than entering the whole library. If it's not on the list when I'm in the store I typically ignore it unless I see something that looks cool that I'm positive I don't own. Like I don't make checklists for joysticks, controllers, etc. but I easily know I don't have any gold N64 controllers yet for example. I should do an actual inventory of what I have though. It's just hard because after I moved I kept a lot of stuff in storage. If it's not a priority right now I don't need it here. I just recently picked up all my Atari 5200 games and brought them home because I didn't keep any that I didn't like and I just got my custom joystick from the RetroGameBoyz website. It's digital only rather than analog so it supposedly won't work properly with a few games. I will have to test to find out which ones will still require the original joystick. I think Edladdin's WIP joystick for 5200 is supposed to be analog so I will probably get that too when it is finally released.

A local guy I met by selling him a spare PS2 on Facebook Marketplace started a new group for the greater Seattle area a couple years ago and they have things like a game of the month to play that is voted on. People sell things, show pickups and lucky finds at thrift stores. Give heads up to the group about what items they left there for others. Talk about new games coming out. It's a lot better than most groups that are just open to everyone from everywhere and the guy many know as Metal Jesus Rocks has even popped in via his real profile to say hi a couple times, commenting on particular things that interested him. Not surprising. I met him on Craigslist a long time ago when I was selling off Colecovision games I didn't like as much as the ones I chose to keep. Speaking of Craigslist I kind of wonder how many games will be sold on there by people who want cash or trades instead of taxed digital payments. I find it highly likely. Check your local Craigslist posts this year in the for sale section as well as the barter section. The guy who started the group I'm in just recently opened up his own game store in Lake Stevens. It's a bit far for me to travel unfortunately otherwise I'd check it out. I'm a bit more gaming focused than collecting focused lately after all. I make a lot of jokes in that group because I've talked to most of the main people and I enjoy playing with words. I guess if you're lucky you might be in an area where people are easier to get along with. Good moderation or making a group invite only are different ways to weed out annoying people. I agree it is funny to see when familiar local people post in the larger groups tailored to one system's collecting though. There are so many groups there are even multiple groups based on certain games or series and you can even make your own. This group I'm in even has had trade meetups but I've never gone because I'm too busy, don't have a lot of trade stuff or extra cash set aside for collecting most of the time.

Final Fight for SNES - played thru the default mode with lots of save states Sunset Riders for SNES - played through Easy mode as Steve with some save states Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for SNES - played through the game, but didn't go for 100% red coins/flowers/stars Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 - played through the game only once this week, getting Goten's Breakthrough capsule and 2 more new rare capsules on the map. It says I have 91%.

Wow I was a member the whole time and I never knew about the discount. I never got a discount on any of my orders from there.

Super Off-Road: The Baja for SNES - played through all race lengths on Beginner mode. Tuff E Nuff for SNES - beat the game on Easy mode as Syoh. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for Playstation 2 - beat Dragon World mode twice this week and got the Breakthrough capsules for Gohan and Videl. I have 90% of all capsules in the game.

Oh here are a couple of the pictures I took when I beat Final Fantasy III. I have more too but that would exceed the file size limit.

Yo! Noid is easy for me. I beat it when I was 8 and continued to do so for years. Tom & Jerry deserves a spot for the last few levels being pretty hard. Tiny Toon Adventures' last level was also very frustrating.

Since I'm doing the game play log on AtariAge I figure I ought to just echo my progress portion of the post here since I'm playing a lot of different things. The past week I have done: Dragon Warrior for NES - beat the Dragonlord with my character at only level 20 this time. I was only doing 5-15 damage per turn but was still able to wear him down and kept using Healmore to survive. Mario Paint for SNES - just played the flyswatter mini game Super Mario All-Stars for SNES - cleared all levels of all four games Super Off-Road for SNES - played for a little over an hour until I felt like playing something else and created a save state to pick up from later The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for SNES - played through the whole game. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 for PS2 - continuing to beat Dragon World mode over and over again to get all the breakthrough, fusion and rare capsules. Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Trunks (Future) are my most used characters.

Everybody selling has to do it all at once in solidarity against the taxation.

Another way around it is I imagine every seller across the board could just add the amount of money they're going to be taxed into the price of their item. Let's say you're just doing it as a small time hobby and not flipping games constantly. Your sales will probably fall into the smallest tax bracket: 10%. So just raise all your item prices 10% above the current going rate. If a game is trending at $100, raise it to $110. When you get your money, put 10% ($10 in this case) in your savings account, every time and do not buy anything with it. When tax season comes next year, use your savings account to pay what you owe. You should break even. It will eventually sell when the cheaper copies sell out.

Oh, I did beat Final Fantasy III at the end of May 2021 on an actual SNES. It was my first time actually finishing it and not using any Game Genie codes. I taught all of my characters all of the Esper spells possible so I had a really easy time beating the final bosses.

About Dr. Mario in the original post... that would only be what the initial print run would come with. I actually ended up getting one brand new on Christmas 1993 and it came with one of the Classic Action Classic Challenges era posters and a foil style Nintendo logo dust sleeve. As a kid Dr. Mario, Kirby's Adventure and NES Cleaning Kit (variant that shows Mario with a cleaning cloth on the cover) were the only three NES items I got brand new, that same Christmas. My Cleaning Kit had the "I pulled the ultimate 1 up!" flyer as well. It appears that posters and dust sleeves would vary inside the boxes based on print year of said game rather than just the game itself. Sega was known for doing this too with Sonic the Hedgehog having multiple poster variants included with it. I bought multiple copies trying to get as many minor variants of Sonic the Hedgehog as I could because it was my first console game that I received as a gift. One of the Classic Action Classic Challenges era posters showed NES, Game Boy and SNES systems on the back and the others had the Super Mario Bros. 3 poster that said "Join the club!" Unfortunately I mixed those up as a kid by taking all of them out of the boxes so I couldn't tell you which one of the three had the poster showing the three systems. I am going to guess it belonged to Kirby because that was the newest release of the three. The takeaway should be that a game should never include a poster older than its release date, but it is possible that it might include something from after its era if it was a popular game that had multiple print runs. A game that didn't sell well may have only had one or two print runs and will always yield the same poster. Dr. Mario was very popular so it obviously had multiple print runs.

I've only bought from videogameboxprotectors.com since the beginning. Does anyone know who started making these protectors first?